Review: Vincent and Theo

Title: Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers
Author: Deborah Heiligman
Publisher: Henry Holt
Year Published: 2017
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5 stars

I thought I knew a decent amount about Vincent Van Gogh. Turns out I only knew the most basic facts.

This beautifully written biography of Vincent and his brother Theo is based on the many letters they wrote to each other and to friends and family. Heiligman writes short chapters in compelling prose that makes you want to keep moving through the story; in fact, I read this book - over 450 pages! - in 3 days.

At first it seems odd that this biography also includes Theo Van Gogh, but once the brothers become adults, it is clear that Theo is as important a player in this story as Vincent. There would have been no Vincent without Theo, in fact (and don't get me started on the epilogue with Theo's wife!). Their lives were so intertwined that full understanding of Vincent MUST include knowledge of Theo as well.

I had a few small quibbles with the book. The first was that there weren't enough images, especially of the sketches. I understand that color plates of the paintings make a book more expensive, and I was happy with the number of plates, but more black and white images of sketches throughout would have been helpful. (I was often reading in the lunchroom at work which somehow has the worst wifi reception despite being right next to the router and I couldn't look anything up.) The second problem was that mental health issues were brought up often but covered very minimally. Since Heiligman used the brothers' letters as her main inspiration, and since mental health was barely understood at the time, it's understandable that there wasn't much in the book about it. However, a chapter outside the narrative with a basic explanation of bipolar disorder would have added a lot though.

Appeal Factors: narrative non-fiction, fast-paced, lyrical
Awards and Nominations: 2018 YALSA Nonfiction for Young Adults Award nominee, 2017 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction winner
Read-alikes: Charles and Emma (also by Heiligman)

Hello?

I know blogs are barely even a thing anymore (how many times have I thought "Should I be starting a tinyletter?"?) but I find myself back here anyway.

Since my last post, I have become a full-time teen librarian at a fantastic public library in the Boston 'burbs. I have free reign over my department, get to create awesome programs for my kids, and also help patrons of all ages with materials and technology. I continue to read copiously in my free time (somehow I'm averaging even more books per year than I used to), and although I use Goodreads to keep track of what I read, I feel like that doesn't grant me the best place to talk about the Readers' Advisory aspects of books that I find most useful in my job.

So I guess it's as good a time as any to fire this blog back up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯